The present invention relates to a trip-wire guiding device for a protective fence, and particularly to the type which includes a plurality of trip-wires tensioned between a pair of fence poles and connecting to detector means actuated upon the disturbance of any of the trip-wires by an attempted penetration of the fence. The invention also relates to a protective fence including such a trip-wire guiding device.
Protective fences are gaining widespread use for protecting restricted areas against unauthorized penetration or intrusion. One form of protective fence includes a plurality of trip-wires tensioned between a pair of fence poles and connected to detector means which are actuated upon the disturbance of the wires by an attempted penetration of the fence. Such protective fences commonly include wire-guiding devices attachable to ground anchoring means, for example other fence poles, intermediate the pair of fence poles supporting the tensioned wires, the wire-guiding device being formed with a plurality of openings through which the wires are to be passed for maintaining them in parallel spaced relationship to assure that any disturbance of the wires, such as by cutting, spreading-apart, or pressing-downwardly, will be transmitted to the detector means and will thereby be detected. Such a wire-guiding device is usually attached to its ground-anchoring means in a force-yielding manner to prevent an attempted intruder from disabling the system by merely fastening the wires to the guiding device, since if he does this, the whole wire-guiding device will yield in case of a force applied to the fastened wire, thereby transmitting the force to the detector means.
The presently-used guiding devices are generally in the form of elongated members, e.g. bars, having a plurality of openings through which the wires are passed, each opening being connected by a slot to the edge of the elongated member to permit the insertion of the respective wire. Each slot is closed by a pop-rivet or like fastener to prevent removal of the wire. However, such arrangements are time-consuming to install since they require a rivet or like fastener to be applied to each opening receiving a wire, there usually being in the order of thirteen wires in such a fence. In addition, it is not particularly difficult for an intruder, using a simple hand-tool, to remove or bend the pop-rivet in order to permit the removal of the wire through its slot, thereby disabling the system.